UK firms securing their way to greater cloud adoption

New Trend Micro research shows UK organisations have some of the highest adoption rates for cloud technologies

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VMWorld, Barcelona – 11th October 2012 - Over four in ten UK organisations experienced a cloud-related data security issue in the past 12 months, a slight decrease from the previous year, showing firms are gradually getting to grips with their cloud deployments, new Trend Micro research* has revealed.

Trend Micro researchers quizzed 1400 IT decision makers from the UK, US, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Japan and India and found the UK only one of two countries where reported cloud data security lapses fell – from 48% of respondents in 2011 to 44% this year. This is significant given that UK organisations have some of the highest adoption rates for cloud technologies of all those surveyed globally, only topped by the US.

Globally, four in ten respondents said their IT security requirements are not being met by their current cloud provider, a drop of 4% from 2011, while half said security concerns were a key barrier to cloud adoption, down 5% from a year before, highlighting a gradual maturing of the market.

Also rather reassuringly, 93% of global respondents said they encrypt data stored in the public cloud, while 86% said they keep a 1:1 copy of all data synched to the cloud – both important best practices for public cloud programs. The research also highlighted the rapid pace of public, private and hybrid cloud adoption. More than 20% of respondents have private or public cloud projects in production an increase of 6-8% between 2011 and 2012.

However, it wasn’t all plain sailing, with some organisations still obviously confused by exactly what cloud computing services are. Some 97% of respondents said they were using at least one of a long list of cloud services presented by Trend Micro researchers, yet 10% said that they had no cloud deployment plans, an increase of 5% since 2011.

“While some companies now have ‘something’ running in the cloud, most are still in the middle of their journey - with more services likely to move in time as they address security and privacy concerns”, said Andy Dancer, CTO of EMEA at Trend Micro. “We’ve found that integrated products, able to provide the required security at each stage of the cloud journey, allow the smoothest adoption, allowing organisations to concentrate on locking in business benefits rather than re-architecting security at every stage. This will become even more vital as companies look towards hybrid clouds as the next stage of their adoption.”
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* Survey methodology
1,400 IT professionals from the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Canada, India, Japan and Brazil (200 respondents from each of the seven countries) were invited to participate in a survey on cloud computing. These professionals, from enterprises with over 500 employees, make purchase decisions for cloud computing services, server virtualization or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions.

About Trend Micro
Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704), a global leader in security software, strives to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our solutions for consumers, Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ provide layered content security to protect information on mobile devices, endpoints, gateways, servers and the cloud. Trend Micro enables the smart protection of information, with innovative security technology that is simple to deploy and manage, and fits an evolving ecosystem. Leveraging these solutions, organizations can protect their end users, their evolving data center and cloud resources, and their information threatened by sophisticated targeted attacks.